Home
Wanderers face a goalkeeping dilemma ahead of their Bristol Street Motors Trophy game at home to Aston Villa’s Under-21s on Tuesday night.
Nathan Baxter has picked up a muscle strain, which forced him to pull out Saturday’s squad to face Shrewsbury Town, and his replacement Luke Southwood is scheduled to be away on international duty with Northern Ireland.
Third-choice keeper Joel Coleman is also unavailable through injury, which means Bolton’s second group game could mean an unexpected opportunity for academy graduate Luke Hutchinson, who until Friday had been on loan at non-league club Marine.
The 22-year-old turned professional in 2021 and has had several loan spells outside the Football League with the likes of Radcliffe, Hyde United, Atherton Colls and Bamber Bridge but he is yet to play at senior level for Wanderers.
“I am not sure on the team selection at the moment, we will have to see how it goes,” said Bolton’s assistant manager, Peter Atherton at the weekend. “But it is a squad game at the end of the day so if a young player has to go in then it is good experience for them and a chance to shine in front of the gaffer.”
Asked about the severity of Nathan Baxter’s injury, he added: “I am not 100 per cent certain with that but he got a bit of a strain, so fingers crossed the international break is coming up now and that will give him as much time to recover as possible.”
Atherton praised the performance of goal-scorers Kyle Dempsey and Szabolcs Schön against Shrewsbury in what proved a dramatic game to the end.
“Kyle Dempsey has been doing really well, creating chances and hitting the bar in a couple of games, so he has been a real positive and it was great to see him on the scoresheet,” he said. “It was the same with Szabi getting off the mark but, as I say, the disappointment was that we lost two points at home after two good away wins.”
Manager Ian Evatt was sent off after the final whistle for confronting Shrewsbury defender Morgan Feeney and should learn today whether he will face longer than the regulation one-game ban for his actions.
Any suspension would kick-in for the League One game against Burton Albion on Saturday, October 19.
Source